Color printers typically employ a plurality of inks of different primary colors to generate a spectrum of colors. For example, many color printers use four ink colors: cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y) and black (K). Color images are formed on a receiving substrate or medium by placing combinations of zero or more dots of C, M, Y or K ink at each pixel location. Cyan, magenta and yellow are typically employed since a wide range of colors can be produced by different combinations of these inks.
Ideally, equal amounts of C, M and Y inks should result in a gray color. However, due to a variety of factors, equal amounts of C, M and Y commonly does not produce gray colors, and printers are commonly configured to perform gray balancing. For example, gray balancing can involve adjusting the amounts of C, M, and/or Y so that when the input color data contains equal amounts of CMY, the printed output is gray or substantially corresponds to a black output of the same density. Gray balancing can be difficult to achieve.